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SEATTLE - A Bellevue police SWAT team looking for two suspects in a string of armed robberies shot and killed one of them early Friday as officers surrounded a home in south Seattle to serve a search warrant, police said.

Seattle police spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said the suspect was shot as he drove toward officers in an attempt to run them down. The man was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, Whitcomb said.

The drama unfolded just before 5 a.m. Friday as uniformed Bellevue SWAT team officers were serving a search warrant at a home near 43rd Avenue South and South Hudson Street as part of an investigation into a spree of armed robberies in Bellevue.

Seattle police detectives also believed the two suspects might be connected to armed robberies in Seattle, and were planning to question them as well.

When Bellevue police arrived at the home, they believed that both suspects were inside. The tan Mercedes Benz belonging to the suspects was parked in the driveway.

As the SWAT team approached the residence they saw that one of the men they were looking for was sitting in the driver's seat of the Mercedes.

The suspect noticed the SWAT officers, too. He put the car in reverse and slammed into a parked Ford F-250 pickup truck with such force that it was pushed several yards into the street.

The Bellevue officers ordered the suspect to stop several times, but instead he shifted the car into drive and stepped on the gas.

Believing that the suspect would run over them over rather than surrender, three Bellevue officers opened fire at this man, fatally wounding him. One officer fired a handgun and the other two fired rifles. The suspect struck a second vehicle before coming to a stop.

Medics began emergency treatment to the suspect in an effort to revive him, but he was pronounced dead on arrival at Harborview.

Meanwhile, Seattle police SWAT team officers responded and searched the home, but found no one inside.

Unrelated to the search warrant, robbery detectives questioned and released a second man at the scene.